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By Ben Watanabe
Contributing Sports Writer
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Few teams in recent memory have been as thin-skinned as this iteration of the Philadelphia Phillies.
They scoff in the batter's box when perfect pitches on the outside corner are correctly called strikes. They take offense at the smallest absent-minded gestures by opposing players. They strut as though they're a multi-championship dynasty, although any World Series rings they own came with other teams.
For a while, this personality has driven them to great success. But this year, it's threatening to tear them apart.
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Entering this weekend's series with a 9-14 July record that saw them all but tumble out of the NL East pennant race, star slugger Bryce Harper and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski are the key figures in what The Athletic's Matt Gelb called a "cold war" between the clubhouse and the front office. The current tiff began when Dombrowski implied last offseason that Harper might no longer be "elite." Harper landed a passive-aggressive nudge this week when he told reporters the team "needs help" at the MLB trade deadline. Even interim manager Don Mattingly stepped into the fray.
"Neither Harper nor Dombrowski, two powerful men with huge egos, particularly cares for the other," Gelb wrote. "They should probably figure it out."
The only good thing about the soap opera for the Phillies is that it's helped distract from how poorly they've played.
Since a hopeful series-opening win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 20, the Phillies lost seven of eight games and lost 3 1/2 games in the standings. They're clinging to the final NL Wild Card spot, vying with the likes of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Miami Marlins and Washington Nationals for the last precarious playoff position. For a team that entered the season harboring World Series hopes, it's startling for them to be among such company.
Drama has threatened to derail these Phillies before, however. Instead, it's reinvigorated them. They fired manager Joe Girardi midseason in 2022 and reached the World Series. They finished the next year 14 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the division yet came within one win of a repeat trip to the Fall Classic. If anything their first-place finishes the last two years have been their kryptonite.
It must be said that most of this comes amid the backdrop of Harper scuffling at the plate and Kyle Schwarber dealing with an illness. Strife looms larger when you're losing, and getting those two producing is bigger than any war of words. If that happens, the bad vibes of July would be merely a mention in the championship-season DVD recap. If not, they'll be the defining story of this season.
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